Comments on: Sturdier Furniture Replaces Times Square Lawn Chairshttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/
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By: GShttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-510785
Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:14:59 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-510785This was the stupidest idea Mike has ever come up with. Streets are for cars and sidewalks are for people. NYC already has some of the widest sidewalks of any city in the world—there’s plenty of room to walk. And what’s with comparing Times Square to come Copenhagen????? Since when do they even look alike??? Pedestrian plazas are wonderful in quaint mideival cities, but Times Square??? Get real!!!
Just wait until the summer is over and Times Square is in eternal gridlock… wasn’t this somehow supposed to be a green initiative?? The millions of gridlocked idling cars will create the biggest smog cloud you’ve ever seen.
Also, the businesses along the route hate these changes and are losing business fast… I guess empty storefronts are next. How beautiful will that be!!!
]]>By: MKIIhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-503761
Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:41:46 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-503761P.S. With all due respect, this article was nominally about the new seating in Times Square. So why does the accompanying photo instead show a shirtless exhibitionist instead of said furniture?

Men and women should keep their tops on in the city.

]]>By: MKIIhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-503757
Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:40:23 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-503757An excellent initiative. We need more of this. The city will gradually adapt to less car usage and better use of space for pedestrians and mass transit.

Private automobiles are an insane waste of space in a city. A given block of the city often has only a handful of cars driving on it at a given time, typically each with only 1 or 2 occupants. Meanwhile there will be dozens of people crammed onto the tiny sidewalks. To add insult to injury, the sidewalks are blocked by vendors, newspaper boxes, parking meters, street signs, and lights, and finally piled high with garbage bags. At least the garbage that is put out for the night should be put in the street, not on the sidewalk. It’s vile to have to navigate through an obstacle course of garbage bags.

At any rate, thank you, Mayor Bloomberg, for taking the initiative in this project. Please continue on. The adaptation will take time, but in due course, this will be for the betterment of the city. The misguided age of the private automobile should finally come to an end.

]]>By: Tal Barzilaihttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-503557
Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:54:17 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-503557MrManhattan, Bryant Park is just one block over from Times Square. I don’t see why they can’t just walk that extra block just to get to it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the taxi commission loses a lot of their revenue that they make from picking up and dropping people off from there. As for highways, if I was living durring the time Robert Moses thought of having a highway through lower Manhattan, I to would have been against it unless he agreed to only have it on Canal Street where no demolition of property would be needed at all. For those who didn’t believe me on the Huffington Post, here is the article that I saying that it’s a bad idea.

]]>By: Tal Barzilaihttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-503315
Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:40:36 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-503315Chris, I would like to know who exactly got polled for it, because most Quinnipiac Polls are not given to everyone. I for one did not vote in that poll nor was I told about it prior to the voting. I wouldn’t be surprised if those elites over at Streetsblog all voted on it, which only shows how more elitist it is. I have seen people who had opposed it greatly, and that was from residents. This isn’t some side street, this is a major throughfare. If you didn’t know, the Huffington Post had an article on saying how bad pedestrianizing Times Square, and they are hard core liberals, which shows that it’s not just conservatives that oppose it.
]]>By: MrManhattanhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-503285
Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:31:57 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-503285“There is already a place for public space and that is with the parks, plazas, and squares, but some are just too lazy to get to them.”

There are also a place for automobiles. They’re called freeways. But some drivers are too lazy to get to them.

Broadway at Times Square is now a “plaza” and a “square” (In the old days, a “square” was a public meeting area, not a suburban traffic jam). If you want to drive around, I would suggest the LIE or I95. I hear you can go 60.

]]>By: 40 yr resident in Manhattanhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-502971
Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:05:59 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-502971Times Square in the 70’s was dirty and dangerous; Rudy cleaned it up and brought back its elegance in the 90’s , , , this business man of a Mayor, Bloomberg, has turned the area into a joke!

The tourists love it , , , and of course, that’s where the money is.

]]>By: susan landryhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-502679
Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:31:19 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-502679I have nothing against public art–in fact, i endorse it wholeheartedly. BUT, in the matter of repurposing the original lawn chairs, i think they would have gotten far better use if passed along to the homeless and street people. NYC is not exactly chair-friendly to people who most need a comfortable place to rest.
–susan
]]>By: Chrishttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-502597
Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:42:30 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-502597Tal Barzilai: The public has spoken, and a Quinnipiac Poll indicated the majority of NEW YORKERS – not tourists – support these plazas. Sorry that you disagree, but you’re in the minority.

And it’s very clear from your concerns about public safety and deliveries that you’ve never actually seen these public spaces. There’s still street access to buildings. Come down and see how they work. Just don’t drive.

Also, anonymous (#25): I’m glad that the opinions of a self-interested New York Post columnist and a late-night talk show host who has a penchant to speed in Connecticut mean more to you than the opinions of the majority of New Yorkers.

]]>By: anonymoushttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-502417
Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:02:51 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-502417This was a terrible idea from the start, and the old and new furniture are the least of the problems. DOT director Sadik-Kahn may believe this is a done deal, but the experiment, according to the Mayor’ office, continues through December. And just wait till everyone comes back to the area from their vacations. Many will not be too pleased at what Times and Herald Squares have become.

Diverting BUSES off Broadway on to 7th Avenue inconveniences many individuals who need the Broadway corridor to conduct business, get to work, go to school, shop, keep medical appointments, etc. The detours created by DOT and the MTA for the M6 and 7 in particular are really unfair to communter who need Broadway, not 7th Avenue. The idiots who tell everyone to walk do not care that many of these communters are elderly or disabled, are travelling with small children, or cannot walk some of these distances. I cannot believe the folks at Macy’s who lost their wonderful Broadway bus stop at 34th Street could possibly be happy about this. Many of their customers are not.

The creation of these “plazas” seems mostly for tourists, and few people who work and live in the immediate area are interested in park and lawn furniture and “relaxing” in this area. The furniture is ugly and uncomfortable (which might be a blessing and prevent some loitering) — and the area is still dirty, polluted by the extra heavy 7th Avenue traffic, and extremely noisy. The pedestrian congestion here and at 34th Street continues unchanged. So where is the improvement ?

Last night, David Letterman, who I like, and Donald Trump, who I really do not care for, agreed that what has been done to this section of Broadway is AWFUL. Steve Cuozzo in yesterday’s NY Post, also had choice words for this terrible choice about this “experiment”.

I hope realistic, reasonable heads prevail, and before the Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year season, adjustments and reversals are made to this horrible disaster that Times and Herald Squares have become.

]]>By: Bethhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-502381
Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:52:04 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-502381Oh yes, chairs for the endless tourists in from Flyoverland. And what price all this “urban space” come winter? Are we going to be seeing ski runs in Times Square? The war’s over, and Disney has won…
]]>By: wieeihttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-502057
Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:03:31 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-502057The slobs are proposing shirtless women!
]]>By: Miguel Blandberghttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-502037
Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:34:00 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-502037Why is the man in the picture walking around in public shirtless? Don’t we have laws against it in NYC??

— Sandy

What is this, North Korea?

Am I able to walk around in flip flops with no socks on, or is that also too much flesh baring for you?

]]>By: Karenhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-501937
Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:51:17 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-501937I mentioned that I drive in the city as I must have a car– I live here but work upstate. Having a car here means I am aware of the needs of the streets and avenues and traffic flow. I am also aware of the needs of pedestrians as I will often walk from the village to my office on the upper west side. The city needs to deal with business trucking needs [which often cannot be done off-hours], the needs of people who live and work here who need to get around, the those who visit who don’t know how to cross the streets.
]]>By: Tal Barzilaihttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/comment-page-1/#comment-501863
Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:37:32 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/sturdier-furniture-replaces-times-square-lawn-chairs/#comment-501863After next month, I suggest that the supporters look at 7th Avenue and tell me if it’s not in constant gridlock. Such a thing will cause them to spill over to 5th and even 9th Avenues just to get by. Once the tourist season is over after Labor Day, the place will look almost empty except for probably the homeless, who will use it at night. For those claiming that it will not hurt the Garment District let alone the businesses that are in the middle of the pedestrian plaza, how are emergency workers going to get to them when there is a robbery, fire or someone is seriously hurt and neither the police car, firetruck, or even ambulance can get through? When their stores are empty, how are they going to get restocked when the delivery trucks can’t get through? Unless they have entrances on the other avenues, they are screwed, and I doubt that they would want to walk all the way to the end of the block just to get what they need. There is already a place for public space and that is with the parks, plazas, and squares, but some are just too lazy to get to them. I say when the time comes to consider renewing it, form a huge crowd to protest it with homegrown opposition just to prove that they are not transplanted from elsewhere, though the Streetsbloggers will probably come to counter it as always.
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